Commercial restaurants have expanded in the past years to become large volume businesses, offering services to thousands of people each day. To supply the large volume demand for food services, commercial restaurants have resorted to cooking on large fryers and offering fast food services. Consequently, the volume of hot fats and greases accumulated in restaurants has also increased as the volume of food services have expanded. Commercial restaurants cannot dispose of the hot fats and greases through their drainage system since the grease eventually settles and clogs the drain pipes. Therefore, a need has arisen to provide a safe effective means of disposing of the large volumes of hot fats and greases.
Safe handling of the hot fats and greases accumulated by commercial restaurants has historically been a problem since anytime a person handles a substance that is scalding hot there is a high risk of serious burning injuries. Most often, commercial restaurants maintain a large storage vat outside the restaurant into which the hot fats are emptied. It follows that the person in charge of disposing of the hot fats and greases not only must safely empty the large fryers into a container, but must also transport the same some distance to the main storage vat. Throughout all this handling the container becomes quite hot, and contact with the container must be avoided to prevent serious burning injury.
In transportation of the container to the main storage vat, the operator may often be required to transport the container across snow, up stairs, or across uneven or rough terrain to reach the main storage vat. Therefore, the container must also provide a stable means of transportation and support, and a means of preventing contact with the hot container.
Safety is the primary objective sought when handling the hot fats and greases, thus it is imperative that contact with hot fats and greases or the hot container be avoided at all times. Therefore, it is also the primary objective of the invention applied for herein to provide a safe, effective means of emptying hot fats and greases from frying vessels and transporting the same safely to a main storage vat.